Cameron: U.K. press regulation must be improved

LONDON
(AP)
–
Prime Minister David Cameron's long-awaited testimony before a U.K. media ethics inquiry failed to produce fireworks Thursday, with the Conservative leader offering the non-controversial observation that press regulation needs to be improved in Britain.

AP

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron testifies at the Leveson Inquiry, an official media ethics inquiry, Thursday in London.

Britain's Prime Minister David Cameron testifies at the Leveson Inquiry, an official media ethics inquiry, Thursday in London.

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The judge-led inquiry was set up following revelations of extensive phone hacking at Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid. The scandal has shaken the British establishment, prompted over 40 arrests and the resignations of top Murdoch executives and raised questions about whether leading politicians had helped to shield Murdoch's company from scrutiny.

Cameron told the inquiry that the relationship between British politicians and the press had gone wrong in the last two decades and needs to be reset.

"I think a lot of politicians think the press always get it wrong," he said. "A lot of the press think politicians are in it for themselves — are not in it for the right reasons. It's become a bad relationship."

Cameron did not specify, however, what changes in press regulation he would like to see.

Relations with Murdoch's media empire have been problematic for Cameron. The prime minister has faced criticism for the way his government handled Murdoch's bid to take full control of British Sky Broadcasting, a lucrative satellite broadcaster in which it already had a 39 percent stake. His ties to Murdoch have also been questioned because he hired former News of the World editor Andy Coulson as his communications chief and was close friends with top Murdoch editor Rebekah Brooks.

Coulson has since been charged with perjury in a case touched by the phone hacking scandal. Brooks was charged last month with three counts of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice — an offense that carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Brooks' husband also faces charges in the scandal.

Cameron was not asked hard questions about his relationship with Coulson or Brooks early in the questioning, which is expected to continue until late afternoon.

He did concede that he had many social contacts with Brooks and her husband and also met with James Murdoch, Rupert's son, for drinks occasionally. He said James Murdoch told him personally over drinks that The Sun newspaper would back his party in a general election, switching its support to Cameron's Conservatives after years of backing the rival Labour Party.

In his testimony, Cameron spelled out his media strategy when he became Conservative Party leader, saying he tried to "win back" newspapers that had traditionally backed his party but had been successfully wooed by former Prime Minister Tony Blair and the Labour Party.

He said he courted Murdoch's newspapers but never "traded" policy decisions in exchange for editorial support., adding that talk of a conspiracy with Murdoch's company was "nonsense."

Cameron said discussions with Rupert Murdoch usually focused on major international issues such as the war in Afghanistan rather than on commercial matters.

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